Mashed's Exclusive Survey Uncovers The Most Popular New Item At Trader Joe's
Is Trader Joe's really quick at hopping on the latest culinary trends, or is the chain actually helping to set them? That's kind of a chicken-and-egg question, and not one we're really going to explore right now. Whatever the answer is, even a quick perusal of TJ's monthly "Fearless Flyer" will demonstrate that the store is well-versed in all of the latest food fads. From putting Everything but the Bagel seasoning on all the things to the all-pumpkin, all-at-once fashion this fall, chances are if a food trend is all over your social media feed, it's all over all the aisles at TJ's, as well.
So what's trending at Trader Joe's this minute? Oops, we blinked and it's over. Still, capturing a brief moment in time not so very long ago, Mashed polled 582 readers about which popular new items they liked the best from the chain. In order to narrow down the field so we'd get some statistically significant results rather than 582 different answers, we provided a list of six products from which to choose. These were beef birria, brown sugar oat creamer, cacio e pepe gnocchi, chili onion crunch, the "Dill-icious" chopped salad kit, and a spice blend called Seasoning in a Pickle. The winning product, you may be surprised to know, is not one with an overly cutesy name.
A no-nonsense product topped our popularity poll
The big winner, with 23.54% of the vote, is Trader Joes' brown sugar oat coffee creamer. Oat milk was a breakout hit during 2020's quarantine period due to its shelf-stable nature, but it seems like people are continuing to love the stuff even when we're no longer shopping like we're competing in the "Hunger Games." The trend is so hot, in fact, that this product won our poll despite the big problem shoppers have with the creamer's ingredients, which include sunflower oil and thickening gums.
A punny TJ's product, however, did take a close second place: the "Dill-icious" salad kit, with 20.79% of the vote. The kit contains a double dose of dill with both dill seasoning and dill-flavored potato chips, thus standing as testament to pickle-flavored popularity.
In third place we find chili onion crunch, which the Trader Joe's website explains is a flavored oil with crunchy bits. This stuff earned 14.78% of the vote. Right on its heels are two products tied for fourth place with 14.6%: beef birria (TikTokers favor mixing it with instant ramen) and Seasoning in a Pickle, which is the pickle-flavored counterpart of Everything but the Bagel seasoning. Bringing up the rear is the cacio e pepe gnocchi, which is kind of a super-fancy mac and cheese made with potato dumplings instead of elbow mac. Only 11.68% of our poll respondents gave this product any love, which may indicate that the cacio e pepe fad is fading faster than the pickle one.